Mild and Rainy Monday, Snowmaking Temps to Hit Tuesday Night?

The number "48" kept coming to my attention this morning and it wasn’t a "Jimmy Johnson" newsreel…it was the temperature at several of the ski resorts across the region. There were also a few 49’s and a 50° reading or two thrown in for good measure.

The expected light rain (somewhat moderate at times) has also invaded the region so we are getting a "double whammy" this morning to the thin coverage of base depths that we have right now. Not to worry though, it IS early and it now looks like some pretty decent snowmaking temps at night this week…beginning Tuesday night.

A few people emailed us this weekend asking what the NORMAL TEMPS are for this date. To be "spot on" accurate we’d have to give you the normals for 18 ski areas that we cover from Maryland down to Cloudmont in Alabama. However, I think the real "meat" of the questions about normal temps was to inquire as to how much we are differentiating from normal right now.

The crazy thing is that if I answered that question on Friday of this past week I’d have to say that we were some 23° COLDER THAN NORMAL for the high temp and about 7° colder than normal for the low. Last Friday’s high was in the 30s and lows were in the mid 20s here in the Western North Carolina mountains.

Looking at TODAY, we’ll probably end up about 5° warmer than normal for the high and about 8° warmer than normal for the low tonight. Not as crazy as some of you thought, huh? The perception of some is that we are already in that part of the season that temps are consistenly frigid and that is not actually true.

The NORMAL high for November 26th is 53° here in Banner Elk, NC. The normal low is 27°. So as you can see, it doesn’t take much of a variance to keep our snowmakers from operating this time of year.

Just to head off followup questions about averages…if you fast-forward ONLY ONE WEEK to December 7th or so, the average high is 47° and average low is 24°. By the way, while I was researching the highs and lows…I noticed that on that same December 7th that alluded to a second ago, the record low was MINUS 6° back in 1977! Now THAT was cold but it wasn’t the record low for the month of December. How about a MINUS 18° reading on December 13th of 1962! (That was a natural temp as well!)

Check the slope conditions page for details on openings and trails available today, and be sure to check out Joe Stevens’ "Joe Knows Snow" article today.

Mike is the Editor and founder of SkiSoutheast.com, SkiNC.com and ResortCams.com. Since September 1996 he has posted close to 14,000 posts, articles, photos and videos promoting all of the ski areas of North Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland.Mike is the father of four daughters, is an avid skier and enjoys golf, tennis, kayaking and hiking in the mountains. Winter snowsports and Summer boating on Watauga Lake are among his favorite pastimes.

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